Sunday, November 28, 2010

Today is the last day of our first exhibition and I think all Dotties should be proud of the success of Consequences. Everyone worked incredibly hard to make it all happen, and judging by the comments in the visitors book it has been very well received. The staff at Millgate Museum in Newark (the venue for those of you who have not managed to get there), were impressed, and the level of interest in the work has been high.

One of our aims was to make people realise just what a wonderful tool the computer is for assisting the creative design process in textiles, and I believe we have achieved that. People, young and old, have been fascinated by the computer work that went into creating each piece, and judging by the comments, we have inspired some of them to try it out for themselves.

We created a CD of images of all the work in the exhibition plus much of the background computer work to aid people in trying out some of the effects themselves. The CD is available for £5 plus P&P and it is incredible value for money as there are 130 images on the disc. (if you would like a copy email enquiries@rarebird.ltd.uk) Here is a little selection from the CD.

Erica's novel earrings created by scanning in clothing, and printing out on to paper and fabric then folding into origami earrings.

Jenny's beautiful Lillies created with print, paint and applique

Ros's nifty little Dorothy bag and how she came up with the design

Hilary's delightful frost inspired 3D wall piece in subtle colours, each of the four rosettes in the piece has been created by printing on to different surfaces.

Lesley is a first time exhibitor and one of the newest members of the group, but you would never know it from this lovely little bag.

I used one of the games of Consequences as the starting point for this mask made out of Friendly Plastic, fabric and wire.

If you missed the exhibition, then you missed a treat, but you can still purchase a CD, join a local group or the CTDG (Computer Textile Design Group), take a class, or simply get cracking on your own and see what your computer programmes can do for your creativity (a good way to start is buy a digital photo magazine and follow some of the tutorials on their free CDs, or check out the wealth of free tutorials available on line).

If you want to know more about each of us as artists then some of us have websites and blogs, others you will have to email directly, so check out the links at the side of the page.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Fame at last! The exhibition is up and receiving good reviews in the 'Comments Book'.Some visitors have come especially, others have just happened upon it. For those who haven't been yet, there's still 5 more weeks to visit.

Friday, September 24, 2010

This was the first piece of work I produced for our forthcoming exhibition at the Millgate Gallery, Newark which is on from 9th October until 28th November. It is approx. 60 x 40cms and mounted on a dark blue padded background.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I will be teaching a class at the Husqvarna Shop in Nottingham on 26th October and I needed to practise teaching how to make the earrings with people who were not familiar with Origami techniques.

We made paper earrings, fabric earrings and then more paper ones, but this time to match our clothes. I had asked everybody to bring along paper print outs of scans of some of their clothes, along with the real garments to see which worked best. It was really interesting to see what everybody had chosen and how successful they had been. If you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see the huge variety of papers and fabrics we used. You can see some were made from print outs from our Still Life consequences game.

I hope everybody has gone home buzzing with ideas and will make more pairs, maybe as presents.

By the way, I posted this directly from Picasa (using the little icon - Blog this) - just another way to post.

With our forthcoming exhibition only 19 days away we are busy putting up posters in the Newark and Nottingham areas - those interested, please make a note of the details!

The posters were designed by Erica and Jenny - the image, printed on fabric, was taken from 'Millgate Consequences'.... more information on this and other images at the exhibition! Hope you can come along.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

In preparation for our DOT exhibition I am posting the details which explain the design behind my chef's hat. We were working on images of kitchen utensils and the idea to make a chef's hat suddenly came to me. I had great fun making it, hope you like it too.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

We’ve been very quiet for quite a while now but for good reason - read on…..

We have some exciting news for you – we are holding an exhibition of our work later this year. It will be at the MillgateMuseum, Newark, Nottinghamshire from October 9th –November 29th and entitled “Consequences”

Whilst visiting the museum to see the space for our exhibition, we decided that we should have a round of Consequences based on a photo taken at Millgate. As it was Lesley’s turn, she chose a photo she had taken of one of the displays – a mangle. On our Picasa Web Album, you can see “All 49” of the images from us which have all been taken from the photo of the mangle. You can also see how we have arrived at each of the images.

Much of the textile based work in the exhibition stems from computer images generated in our Consequences games we have played during the last 2 years. Other work being exhibited has been produced as a “consequence” of using a computer as a tool somewhere in the design process. There will be a very varied display, not only of our finished pieces, but also background information explaining how computers can be used effectively.

This is the blog of the Designs On Textiles group who are a bunch of people who use the computer as a design tool for their textile work.

Welcome

Hi,

Welcome to the blog of the DOT group. This blog was designed to keep members up to date with what went on at our meetings, but if you are not a member, you are very welcome to read our posts anyway.

DOT, or Designs On Textiles was formed by a group of like minded individuals who use the computer as a design tool for their textile work. Members have a range of abilities from total beginners to old hands. Most of us are in to stitched textiles in some form, but we do have a machine knitter and a hand knitter as well. We meet once every 3 months for a day of exploration and sharing, and a good old natter.

Our base is in Nottingham, and we are all members of the Computer Textile Design Group (CTDG) which is an international version of DOT. There are other local groups around the country, so if you are interested in joining one, simply contact the CTDG for details of where to find us all. You can contact DOT by leaving a comment or emailing one of the members via this blog.